i can remember the painful dinners where my brother was being 'taught' how to use cutlery. seriously, there are way worse things than not holding cutlery properly.

My dd was awesome at eating yogurt with her hands when she was 9 months ish. very cool to see. i think she started using a spoon properly around 12 months, and is pretty good at all knife, fork and spoon now. i have them available for the kids to use, but am not going to get narky if they don't use them.

Helping you cook is a good way to learn knife skills. Get them to chop mushrooms, watermelon, strawberries etc. The shape of the pieces doesn't really matter if it is for fruit salad for you, it's just good practise.